Events & Conferences

Having strong corporate communications can help your business weather just about any storm. Most of us know how important it is to have great public relations and manage our marketing messages, but it’s also essential to be communicating well with employees and improving internal communications during a crisis.

Internal communications are too often overlooked. Of course, when a crisis hits, people often start thinking about internal communications and how to keep everyone calm and informed. Unfortunately, by then it’s often too late to properly form a solid communications strategy or even identify which tools to use for company-wide communications that'll get noticed--it’s much better to be thinking ahead and planning for the inevitable. 

Simply put, is your organization ready to communicate effectively with employees if an active shooter situation happens nearby? Or if a disgruntled employee becomes violent? It’s not easy to think about, but it’s so much better to be safe than sorry. Planning ahead can be hard, but it’s not impossible. You can prepare yourself to communicate more effectively when it really counts. 

With that in mind, here are four books that can help your organization nail the internal communications process and be better prepared. These are great reads for corporate communications departments, HR personnel, or really anyone who wants to communicate more effectively when worst-case scenarios happen in a corporate setting.

Four Books About Improving Internal Communications During A Crisis

1. Sandcastles in the Tide: The Value of Employee Communications in the Context of Change by Jack LeMenager

Having the ability to manage change and deal with a crisis as a company, according to LeMenager, has a lot to do with building effective communications and engagement with employees from the beginning before the crisis hits. Waiting for a crisis to set up the right communications channels and strategies is far too late. This book explains why good internal communications are essential and talks about how your organization can rethink and rebuild how it communicates. For your organization, this may mean looking at how effectively your communications channels actually engage employees.

As you read LeMenager’s book, it may be helpful to ask yourself how well your company is actually using employee communications. Are you ready for a crisis? LeMenager will tell you that the only constant at your organization is change, whether or not you see it. Rethinking your communications strategy is a worthwhile goal; Sandcastles in the Tide challenges you to do just that. 

2. Crucial Conversations: Tools For Talking When Stakes Are High by Patterson, Grenny, McMillan and Switzler

Frankly, a lot of people are really bad at having difficult conversations. It’s never more important to have these conversations, though, than when the stakes are really high. Crucial Conversations is about how to talk through those circumstances with clarity, persuasion, and honesty. As a communicator, you need to be prepared for situations where these difficult conversations may not even be possible one-on-one. Corporate communications often necessitate communicating difficult information through media such as newsletters, emails, and conference calls.

Even when communication is more impersonal, it takes a serious mindset shift for many of us to be able to handle high-stakes communications in an emergency. Even seasoned professionals can encounter situations where emotions run high and interfere with effective communications. Read Crucial Conversations for insights on how to communicate those difficult messages, stay on topic, and persuade when it’s even more critical than ever.  

3. Sync or Swim: A Fable About Workplace Communication and Coming Together in a Crisis by Chapman, White, and Myra

This book is a workplace communications story that may just inspire you to action and help you start thinking about how your team will lead employees through the next emergency. Written as an enjoyable fable about a sheepdog CEO and his company’s encounter with a coming storm, Sync or Swim was written to get you thinking about the kind of communications you need to use and the mindset communicators need when a serious crisis hits. Will you respond to the storm the way Sam the sheepdog does? Don’t let your company be swept away. 

4. Avoiding Disaster: How to Keep Your Business Going When Disaster Strikes by John Laye

Unfortunately, many businesses simply aren't prepared for natural disasters and stand to lose a lot if one were to actually happen. Natural disasters are inevitable and no human being has control over them, so it just makes sense to have contingency plans and communication strategies in place before the worst happens. 

In Avoiding Disaster, Laye walks managers through strategies that can help them stay ahead of possible disasters and protect their businesses if the worst should occur. He also includes information you can use during the disaster itself, so you have a practical guide to help in the midst of chaos. The book covers natural disasters, but it also has information on preparing for man-made disaster scenarios, too. 

Improve Your Workplace Critical Communication

These four books are all great resources for thinking about critical communications at your workplace. If you want to dig deeper, though, it’s also important to look at how to help employees tune-in better to critical communications by examining the data on how prepared workplaces really are for the inevitable. 

Our whitepaper, Workplace Safety and Preparedness: Survey of Full-Time Employees from Industries across the U.S., offers insights to help you improve workplace critical communications and emergency preparedness. Get your copy to discover which modes of communication today’s employees prefer and learn which emergency plans lack the most awareness. 

Most safety professionals acknowledge it is extremely difficult to find accurate mobile workforce safety statistics. This is often due to factors such as underreporting, the black market economy, and insurance fraud; and complicated by the confusion of employees who work from home included in some definitions of mobile workers.

The consequence of inaccurate mobile workforce safety statistics is that nobody knows the scale of the problem; although, some studies can give some insights into localized or industry-specific issues. This results in mobile workers in genuinely unsafe environments not being given the training nor the tools required to protect themselves in times of emergency.

The Difficulty in Compiling Accurate Mobile Workforce Safety Statistics

As well as the factors mentioned above (underreporting, black market activity, insurance fraud, etc.), the criteria for mobile workforce safety statistics can make a difference to their outcomes. For example, the latest Global Reporting Standards for Occupational Health and Safety (PDF) stipulates that not only are direct employees of an organization considered “workers”, but also individuals who are not employees, but whose work or workplace is controlled by the organization (i.e. volunteers).

What constitutes a mobile workforce also creates issues. In the 2007 study “Understanding and Managing the Mobile Workforce” (PDF), Cisco noted five categories of mobile workers:

• On-site movers - employees who work at one site, but move around within it, e.g. security personnel and IT technicians.
• Yo-Yos - employees who occasionally work away from a fixed location, e.g. in jobs which require business trips.
• Pendulums - employees who alternate between working at two fixed locations, e.g. the employer’s office and a client’s office or a home office.
• Nomads - employees who work in a number of different places and are constantly moving amongst them, e.g. a sales agents, engineers, etc.
• Carriers - employees who work on the move, transporting goods or people, e.g. train conductors or airplane stewards.

Importantly, Cisco defined mobile workers as “those who work at least ten hours per week away from home and from their main place of work, e.g. on business trips, in the field, travelling or on customers’ premises, and use online computer connections when doing so”. The important section of this definition in respect of mobile workforce safety statistics is “work at least ten hours per week away from home”, which implies telecommuters who work exclusively at home should be excluded from statistics.

Safety Data for Mobile Workforce is Also Difficult to Compile

Another difficulty in compiling accurate mobile workforce safety statistics is what constitutes as a work-related injury or illness. The Global Reporting Standards for Occupational Health and Safety are based on OSHA's general recording criteria for occupational injuries and illnesses, which are exceptionally vague about mental health illnesses - a particular issue among mobile workers who face additional stress factors unique to the nature of their work.

Mobile workers miss out on a number of factors that benefit mental health in the workplace such as colleague interaction, peer support and office provisions. Mobile workers in isolated locations can go the whole day without interacting with anyone, while long-distance travelers experience severance from home and family as well as a perception of heightened travel and security risk.

The Consequence of a Mobile Workforce with Poor Mental Health

Whereas the benefits of mobile working are generally acknowledged to be increased creativity and productivity, the consequence of a mobile workforce with poor mental health is that these benefits are reversed. An article published at Inc.com found that 81 percent of workers with mental health issues continue working rather than taking time off to seek treatment. Based on the author's calculations, “presenteeism” is costing U.S. companies more than $35 billion each year in lost productivity.

It is not necessarily employers who are to blame for this situation. Throughout history there have always been mobile workforces (Roman armies, seafaring merchants, stagecoach drivers, etc.). However - due to modern technology - the number of mobile workers has exploded in recent years. According to our infographic, 43 percent of the U.S. workforce currently works remotely (mobile workers and telecommuters) and this figure is anticipated to increase to 50 percent by 2020.

The explosion of mobile workforces has accentuated stress factors that were rarely considered before. Some of the stress factors that develop into mental health issues are self-inflicted by mobile workers not cut out for working remotely, but - according to a review of globally published research funded by the British Occupational Health Research Foundation (PDF) - 64 percent of mobile and remote workers were found to have mental health above the level defined as psychological distress.

Solutions to Resolve Poor Mental Health in Mobile Workers

There are a number of solutions available to resolve poor mental health in the general workplace (i.e. Employee Awareness Programs), but not so many to resolve poor mental health in mobile workers. Mental health authorities advocate regular communication with mobile workers, and ensuring that supervisors and managers quickly address any problems they encounter. This may partly resolve the issues of colleague interaction, peer support and office provisions, but is not a complete solution.

According to our own research, 26 percent of mobile workers feel that worrying about their safety affects their work. One solution that can resolve these concerns is a multimodal communication system that not only warns employees to the risk of danger, but which can also be used for two-way geo-traceable communications, anonymous tip texting, and as a content portal for emergency procedures, travel documents and other key resources.

Want to learn more about the mobile workforce and how you can keep them safe? Download this infographic.

No matter where you are, or what you’re working on, when it comes to the data and information that you transfer or access online, nothing is more important than keeping it secure. That's why businesses, employers, and managers alike should educate and prepare their traveling employees with the strategies they can use to keep their physical and digital information safe. 

Resulting from a stolen device, account, or physical record, identity theft is a serious issue that can affect employers, employees, and clients. Therefore, to help ensure your company’s devices and employee data is safe, we’re covering travel security strategies you can share with your employees in advance to their departure.

Working Safer While On-The-Go

Protect your work equipment and always log out: While traveling, it’s imperative to protect your digital devices and data from both physical and digital forms of theft. To avoid physical robbery, always log out and never leave your work equipment unattended or allow others to use it. When not in use, you should store the device safely and avoid disclosing its location. However, as discussed below, digital theft is also used to gain unlawful access to an individual's or company’s online accounts and stored data.

Update devices before you leave: Installing manufacturer-recommended software before departure ensures that the equipment and applications have been downloaded from a trusted network and are operational. Ignoring critical patches and security software updates can make your device and data vulnerable. To avoid issues while traveling, and guarantee your device and security software is always up to date, consider speaking with your I.T. team about enabling automatic updates that are scheduled to install after work hours.

Avoid public WiFi: Public WiFi networks may seem convenient, especially for travelers, however, if you’ve paid for access and/or a password, this can be risky. Although the information they gain may seem like a foreign language to most, for cybercriminals, this traffic and information coming from a monitored network can be extremely valuable when executing acts of identity theft. Therefore, many companies host Virtual Private Networks that allow authorized employees remote login access to their secure internal network and servers. Using a combination of firewall security and data encryption software, a VPN can be an extremely reliable way for companies to transfer and share data while on-the-go. Before departing, ask your I.T. department if the company has a secure network or subscription to a Virtual Private Network (VPN) for traveling employees. 

Secure all physical documents and devices when not in use: Although it seems rudimentary, physical theft like pickpocketing is still a common practice among thieves. In fact, Europe has seen an enormous increase in pickpocketing cases over the past eight years, resulting in seven reported instances every day. Most often, thieves target a tourist's physical goods, including unattended devices, travel documentation, and wallets. So, when it comes to your physical documents, always safely store them when not in use, and avoid sharing or disposing of plane tickets and itineraries until you return. 

Monitor for unauthorized activity and plan for data emergencies: Being prepared for an emergency such as a stolen device, hacked account, or data breach ensures the digital issues in your workplace can be reported and resolved promptly. An emergency response plan is an essential document that all companies should consider establishing. By documenting the most common digital threats facing your industry, assigning a response team, and providing employees with the information they need to report and respond to a digital emergency adequately, you're preparing your company and employees for even the most unlikely occurrence.

Technology Should be a Priority

It's crucial for companies to prioritize employee safety, even when workers are away from their home base. This poses a variety of challenges for an organization, but by leveraging technology, employee safety can be managed from a distance. Every company has unique concerns and risks, but one issue that should be a priority for  organizations is digital privacy. It's never too soon to put together a company safety plan, and digital breaches can be accounted for along with a variety of other emergency situations. It's important to incorporate traveling employees into these plans, as employers still have a responsibility to keep off-campus employees involved in their emergency practices. 

While there are many physical risks to consider when managing employee safety, employee digital data breaches are increasingly of concern. Preparing employees to manage their privacy while away from the office will improve security for both the individual and the company, and workers will likely be eager to do so. Many people are aware and concerned about issues of data privacy, as it has been in the news often these days. Individuals are likely informed of data mining breaches, as social media giants such Facebook were recently criticized for putting inadequate protections on their service. When this revelation broke, other platforms, such as Twitter, updated their privacy protocol to better protect users. The issue of data privacy is likely a concern for individual employees, so be sure to communicate threats to look out for and best practices for preventing them to your entire team. 

According to the National Privacy Commission, threats to security include  viruses and worms, Trojan horse viruses, phishing and pharmware, adware, spyware, and ransomware. Familiarizing employees with these threats will help prevent a security breach or attack, and improve overall safety. This can be done via an emergency notification system, which can also keep the team updated on any potential breaches of security. For example, if a virus or phishing scam is being circulated via e-mail, this would be a simple way to quickly inform your team what the message looks like and not to open the scam on their computers. This way, even if employees are abroad, they understand the risks and know the protocol for keeping their work data safe.

Security Begins In The Office

Businesses should bolster their data security on-site as well. Managing physical and digital data on-site is crucial for putting together a comprehensive safety plan, and will ultimately help employees who are traveling work better as well. Here are a few ways that businesses and business owners can improve their own security, bolstering the overall safety for their workers: 

• Manage a Secure Database  - To keep track of employee information, it's important to manage a database of information for each employee currently working for your business. However, this information can be sensitive, so finding a way to securely manage employee information is a helpful way to communicate with your entire team faster, as an emergency notification system can notify an entire database about risks for danger, or messages can be sent to a select group, such as employees working off-site or traveling, about potential risks.  
• Prioritize Education & Vigilance - Even with safeguards in place, it's important for companies to have an informed traveling workforce. Many employees, while aware and concerned about data privacy and security, might not be aware of the warning signs or risks. Provide training for employees, or communicate helpful tips for managing privacy while out of the office. 

Business owners can encourage a secure traveling workforce with proper communication protocol in place. Keep your team informed of the risks, as well as best practices for managing security while on the road. Make sure that all team members have opted-in to all emergency and critical communications or alerts, and that they have a way to be in contact with the on-site team at well should any security based issues arise. Keeping employees educated and vigilant about cyber security risks is one of the key ways to build a first line of defense against any potential threat or breach. 

Managing worker safety is essential, even when these employees are traveling or working off-site. There are a variety of tools that can be leveraged to manage both the security and safety of traveling employees. It's important for businesses to account for a variety of potential situations, whether they are off-site on a business trip or there is a weather. It's keep to keep employees looped in during any emergency situation, even if they are away from the office. An emergency notification system is a secure way to ensure the entire team is receiving company updates, even while away from the campus. If there is an emergency situation, whether it is a physical or digital issue, these employees will understand the risks. In the case of a severe weather emergency or other natural disaster, companies can even use this system to perform employee wellness checks for those workers who are out of office. 

Employees can also be empowered to take safety into their own hands with a 2-way anonymous tip texting system. This way, if an employee notices anything suspicious while traveling, they will be able to report the incident back to the business in a quick and effective way. This can even help manage data privacy, as if an employee is worried that their data might not be secure or suspects a phishing scam, they have a fast way to report back to the company and check in on the matter. 

The Internet is full of information about mass notification systems and the specifications they should comply to, but trying to find guidance on when mass notification is required - i.e. when mass notification systems should be activated - is difficult. So, when is mass notification required?

Mass notification systems date back to the Middle Ages, when church bells summoned people to worship. Church bells were subsequently used to warn local populations of impending attacks until they were replaced by sirens in the early 1900s. During the Second World War and Cold War, the use of mass notification systems increased dramatically, and they now play an important role in warning populations of adverse weather conditions, man-made disasters and other emergency incidents.

Federal Guidance on when Mass Notification is Required

Despite their importance, federal guidance on when mass notification systems should be used is hard to find - the exception being the Clery Act, which requires colleges and universities benefiting from federal financial aid programs to provide “timely warnings” of certain crimes. Even then, there is a certain amount of leeway in how and when the warnings are issued, how the person(s) responsible for issuing the warnings interprets the facts, and whether they consider a crime to be ongoing.

Most other federal regulations relate to when systems should be installed (i.e. OSHA 1910.165) or what factors they need to take into account (i.e. Americans with Disabilities Act Title III). Some regulations (i.e. NFPA 72) don´t actually mandate the installation of a mass notification system, but go into immense detail about the specifications such systems should comply with; whereas others (i.e. CMS´ Emergency Preparedness Rule) require an Emergency Action Plan is developed without stipulating how it should be executed.

State and Local Ordinances Fail to Provide an Answer

Most state and local ordinances relating to mass notification also focus on mass notification systems and the circumstances in which they should be installed - relying heavily on the International Building Code or NFPA 5000 Code as their guide. Typically, when a Mass Notification System is required, activation of the system is largely reliant on discretion the operator or subject to an interpretation of the conditions or after carrying out a risk assessment (i.e. see proposals to amend California §8594.6 in SB 833).

Naturally there are some circumstances in which the activation of a mass notification system will be automatic - for example if a heat sensor or smoke alarm detects a fire. But in other circumstances there may be an element of doubt (“is that person carrying a firearm”) and in which hesitation could result in unnecessary death or injury. In these circumstances, organizations should implement “Activate First - Review Later” policies to best protect their communities, employees and students.

The Importance of Having an Integrated Mass Notification System

So far we have established there is little guidance about when mass notification is required and that, to avoid unnecessary delays, it is better for organizations to implement “Activate First - Review Later” policies than to wait and see how a situation develops. There is one other important point to address - the importance of having an integrated mass notification system. This is because according to NFPA 72, a mass notification system should consist of four “layers”:

Layer 1 Immediate and Intrusive Alerting
• One-way voice communication system
• Two-way voice communication system
• Visible notification appliance(s)
• Textual/digital signage and displays

Layer 2 Wide Area
• Wide area outdoor notification system

Layer 3 Distributed Recipient Notification System
• SMS Text / Email
• Computer pop-ups
• Smartphone apps
• Reverse 911

Layer 4 Public Alerting
• Radio & TV broadcasts
• Social Media

It is not necessary for every mass notification system to have every element within each of the four layers, but what is important is that the elements are integrated with each other so they are all “singing the same song”. In a high-rise fire or active shooter scenario, for example, the activation of different elements of a non-integrated system could result in one element sounding an evacuation order, while another element is telling people to stay put.

If your organization is using mass notification for things like severe weather notifications, you should also consider using mass notification to promote workplace safety. 

Almost every employer is required to have an Emergency Action Plan to comply with OSHA's Occupational Safety and Health Standards. Every employer covered by the Emergency Action Plan regulations must install and maintain an alarm system, and train employees to assist in the safe evacuation of others.

However, in a workplace environment, there can be several different types of emergencies that require different responses. For example, the advice given by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the appropriate action to take during an earthquake is to stay indoors. An evacuation may also not be the most appropriate course of action during adverse weather or an active shooter event.

So, how can an employer best communicate the nature of an emergency and the appropriate action to take simultaneously to potentially thousands of employees? What if the workplace area is used by temporary visitors (customers, sub-contractors, etc.)? Or an emergency affects one area of a workplace, but not another - for example, the contained release of a hazardous substance?

In these circumstances, the best form of alarm system to use is a mass notification system that has opt-in/opt-out and grouping capabilities. Mass notification systems such as these send the right messages to the right people at the right time - maximizing workplace safety and minimizing workplace disruption. The following explains how these capabilities work and the benefits that can be obtained.

How Mass Notification Systems Work

Mass notification systems work by simultaneously sending administrator-issued emergency alerts to employees and other opted-in system users via multiple channels of communication (SMS text, email, social media, etc.). The system can be integrated with IPAWS for state and federal alerts, and can also be configured to send workplace alerts in multiple languages.

Workplace alerts, instructions how to respond in an emergency, and incident updates can be sent by authorized administrators from any Internet-connected device. It is recommended the text of alerts is prepared in advance to save time when an emergency occurs, and so that instructions on how to respond are clearly defined and not written in a confusing manner due to the stress of a situation.

Opt-In to Receive Workplace Safety Alerts

A workplace mass notification system with opt-in capabilities enables temporary visitors to opt-in to the alert system in the same way they might text a keyword to a short code number to take advantage of a retailer's promotion (for example, text 'PIZZAS' to 749927 to get a discount on your next order). Visitors to the workplace simply opt into the alert system when they arrive, and opt out when they depart.

An alternative to the text opt-in/opt-out process is to provide a portal on the corporate website through which employees and temporary visitors can create profiles indicating their preferred channels of communication for workplace alerts (if not SMS text) and preferred languages.

Minimize Business Disruption with Grouping

When a workplace-wide alarm system is activated, it alerts everybody within the workplace to an emergency incident, regardless of whether they are in danger or not. This can cause significant business disruption when employees who are not at risk follow evacuation procedures and leave their places of work. Mass notification systems with grouping provide a solution to this problem.

Grouping enables employees to be grouped according to their geographical location, role within the business, or other attribute. When an emergency alert is sent, administrators can select only the groups(s) for whom the alert is relevant - notifying only employees who are at risk and minimizing business disruption. This feature can save businesses thousands of dollars in otherwise lost productivity.

Mass Notification Systems with Geo-Polling

A further feature of mass notification systems that can promote workplace safety is the geo-poll feature. This feature is of particular use in widespread emergencies when employers want to check on the well-being of employees. The system is used to send a poll with a simple question (for example “Are you okay?”) and a selection of answers from which to choose:

• Question: Are you okay?
• Response 1: Yes.
• Response 2: No, I need medical help.
• Response 3: No, I need transportation.

The “geo” element of the geo-poll uses GPS to track the location of employees in need of assistance, while the system's reporting function reveals employees who have not responded to the geo-poll. The geo-poll feature used in conjunction with the grouping capability can also be used to assist with business continuity in the event of an emergency as demonstrated in the following case study.

Grouping Capability and Geo-Poll Feature Saves Business $189,000

In 2015, a well-known multi-national consumer goods producer implemented a mass notification system to replace its existing communications system. Prior to implementing the system, a lack of responsiveness had impacted the company's operational capability. Furthermore, the company had no effective means of communicating with remote workers such as drivers.

The following year, a violent storm caused a power outage at one facility. Management used the new mass notification system to notify the next group of employees to delay reporting for their shift and was able to use to solicit availability for extended shifts to ensure business continuity. To find out how this saved the company $189,000, read the case study.

Recap: 4 Ways to Use Mass Notification to Promote Workplace Safety

• Prepare the text of notification alerts in advance to save valuable time.
• Provide an opt-in/opt-out facility for temporary visitors to the workplace.
• Group employees to get the right message to the right people at the right time.
• Use geo-polling to check on the well-being of employees during and after an event.

Mass notification systems do not have to be used exclusively for emergencies. The opt-in and grouping capabilities can be used to advertise social events, job vacancies, and road closures that might affect access to the workplace. System administrators can create an unlimited number of groups and sub-groups, and employees can opt into them and out of them at will, and indicate how they would like to receive each type of non-emergency communication.

Not sure if your current system has enough capabilities to meet you communication needs? Download this checklist.

In The News This Week

This week in industry news, Campus Safety shared that the Police Foundation has initiated a project to study adverted acts of school violence. They have built a national database to collect and analyze data regarding averted incidents to identify best practices to prevent and respond to acts of violence in schools. Key Highlights:

• The project is based on the concept of a "near miss", which has been used to inform the business practices of aviation, fire and medical professionals. These averted incidents contain invaluable information regarding the strengths and or potential weaknesses of current policies, procedures, trainings and methods 
• Based on the preliminary study, in over half of the open source incidents we studied, students were the first to discover another student's plans for school violence
• By submitting and reviewing reports to the Police Foundation, you can improve school safety in your district or on your college campus as well as help other school safety professional across the country improve safety

So far, Police Foundation subject matter experts have reviewed approximately 51 incident reports that been entered into the adverted school violence database. Read the full story here to learn more about these findings. 

This Week From the Rave Team

Read some of the stories our writers were most excited to share with you this week. To access all of our stories, check out our blog. 

4 Ways to Encourage Student Engagement in Campus Safety

Regardless of whether a student downloads an app or not, campus safety officials can still encourage students to safely navigate through campus and provide tips for other scenarios in case of emergencies. A key to success is getting students to take ownership for their well-being and getting involved with campus safety initiatives. Read this blog to learn four ways your campus safety department can encourage students to participate in their own safety. 

                                                                     READ MORE 

Temporary Opt-In for Summer Camp Programs

During the Fall and Spring semesters, a mass notification system is essential for campus-wide communication. However, it can also be a powerful tool for managing safety among summer camp attendees. Regardless of whether a child is there for the day or a whole week overnight, students receiving alerts while they’re in a new environment could help both children and parents in case of emergencies. Read more about the versatility of SMS notifications. 

READ MORE

Rave in the News

We're excited to be partnering with Santa Fe County's 911 to help local officials keep students and schools safe. The Santa Fe superintendent says the district is always exploring new technology to make schools safer and is excited to learn more about the program and what it can do for schools in the district. 

Major Gabriel Gonzales says the new system can buy emergency response more time and ensure critical incident information is being relayed from the scene to 911 dispatch. Emergency officials hope to get every schools in the county to use it. 

You can read the full story here. 

Professionals working in healthcare are statistically more susceptible to workplace violence than those working in other industries. Many hospitals and healthcare facilities are underfunded and face staffing shortages, putting more strain on employees and exposing them to more risk.

The healthcare field is critical for managing community wellness and safety. Every day, residents rely on local nurses, doctors, and specialists to address health concerns. The employees in the field likely pursued the career for the opportunity to help others, and their contributions shouldn’t be overlooked. Neither should their safety, as in recent years, new concerns about the rates of workplace violence in the healthcare field have come to light. 

In 2016, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study that found that violence in the workplace is under-reported by healthcare professionals. This is alarming, as the review also included data from the Bureau of Labor statistics that revealed healthcare workers are four times as likely to require time off or away as a result of violence as they are other injuries on the job. Even though healthcare and social assistance workers make up only 12.2% of the workforce, nearly 75% of workplace assaults happen in the healthcare sector. Unfortunately, these statistics likely understate the problem, since many  of these workers accept violence as part of the job.

James Phillips, who works in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, found these statistics alarming, but not necessarily surprising. “Health care workplace violence is an underreported, ubiquitous, and persistent problem that has been tolerated and largely ignored. One reason health care providers are reluctant to report these [incidents] is that we have compassion for our patients, and we don't want to treat patients like they're criminals or the enemy," Phillips told Reuters Health. "So we probably make excuses when we shouldn't."

There’s overwhelming evidence that healthcare workers need more protection from violence, there’s little consensus on how to address the issue. Every hospital struggles with unique threats and risks, and there is no single solution. However, many of these issues are systemic, and the nurse to patient ration in hospitals is contributing to the increase in workplace violence for healthcare professionals.

According to the Association of Colleges of Nursing, the United States is projected to experience a shortage of registered nurses as baby boomers age and the need for care grows. The issue is compounded by nursing schools across the country are struggling to expand capacity to train the  number of professionals needed to meet this rising demand. The issue must be addressed with a comprehensive plan that includes changes in legislation, new organizational strategies, and by leveraging innovative technology to alleviate the strain on nurses and improve patient care.

The Case For Nurse to Patient Ratio Legislature 

According to NurseWorld, the American Nursing Association advocates for the appropriate number and mix of nursing staff is crucial to delivering patient care. Since healthcare employers may not recognize the correlation between experienced RN staffing and patient outcomes, laws and regulations are necessary. There is currently a federal regulation in place that which requires hospitals to “have adequate numbers of licensed registered nurses, licensed vocational nurses, and other personnel to provide nursing to patients as needed.” Unfortunately, the vague language in the regulation allows hospitals and other healthcare facilities to find loopholes, and makes it up to individual states to institute staffing laws.

Many states have made strides to ensure there is optimal nurse staffing, but there is still work to be done. California is the only state with laws that stipulate a required minimum nurse to patient ratio per hospital unit. Massachusetts is the only other state with a similar law, requiring a 1:1 or 1:2 nurse to patient ratio in the ICU. Minnesota requires a core staffing plan with input from nurses, and five states – Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont have mandatory reporting for patient to staff ratios.

According to the ANA, state staffing laws typically have three strategies for addressing under staffing. The first is requiring hospitals and other facilities are to have nurses to create a staffing committee to put together plans that reflect the needs of the patient population and match the skills of practitioners with patients. The second is to have legislature mandate a nurse to patient ratio in law. The third approach is to require hospitals and other facilities report staffing levels to the public and appropriate regulatory bodies.

It makes sense that California is leading the charge when it comes to establishing nursing laws. In March, State Representative Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, and 12 other House Democrats introduced legislature intended to curb workplace violence. The Healthcare Workplace Violence Prevention Act, would direct the Occupational Health and Safety Administration to create a standard that would require health care facilities to develop and implement facility and unit-specific workplace violence prevention plans. These guidelines would include appropriate nurse-to-patient ratios, and would require workplaces to create comprehensive violence prevention plans with input from nurses, doctors, and custodial staff.

“Health care workers, doctors and nurses are continuously at risk of workplace violence incidents, strangling, punching, kicking and other physical attacks, that can cause severe injury or death,” Khanna wrote in a press release. “This is simply unacceptable. The Health Care Workplace Violence Prevention Act puts a comprehensive plan in place and is a national solution to this widespread problem modeled after the success seen in California.”

“Health care workers, doctors and nurses are continuously at risk of workplace violence incidents...that can cause severe injury or death”

If the Act is signed into the law, it could help address the under staffing that often leads to workplace violence against nurses. In the meantime, the America Nursing Association is continuing to advocate for legislature on the state and federal level to hold hospitals accountable for implementing tangible, unit-by-unit nurse staffing plans.

Leveraging Technology For Nurse Safety

When crafting a hospital or healthcare facility-wide safety plan, nurses and doctors should take into account how technology might help address gaps in staffing. A mass notification system can help keep all hospital employees and patients on the hospital campus informed, even during periods with low staffing. It can help manage long wait times as well – if there’s an emergency that is taking much of the hospital personnel to address, many patients will be more willing to wait if they are informed. Often it’s the lack of communication that makes people in the waiting rooms irritable, which has the potential to lead to confrontational or violent situations.

A mass notification system would also allow for greater communication among hospital employees. The appropriate nurse to patient ratios are important, but so is making sure nurses are given assignments appropriate for their area of expertise. By speeding up communication between nursing teams, the facility can ensure that every patient is receiving the best possible care without putting a major strain on staff. Even though hospitals have a designated code system for staff to keep each other informed, this would allow for nurses and doctors to establish a line of communication with other hospital staff or personnel. 

During an emergency, it’s important for nurses, doctors, or other staff to have direct access to help. It's clear that addressing the staffing crisis through legislature, facility planning meetings and technology is the most effective way to combat workplace violence as the result of nurse to patient ratios.

In The News This Week

This week in industry news, StateScoop reports on how companies like Apple and Google are beginning to stir public interest in new community safety features, like the ability to share more precise location data with emergency responders. For places where 911 infrastructure has gone untouched for many decades, the path leading to the next generation of 911 and the ability to utilize these new features is unclear, especially when no stable sources of funding exist. Key Highlights:

• The ability to receive and manage accurate cell location data is critical for 911 centers, particularly given that 80 percent of the 911 calls today are made from cell phones.
• The FCC is trying to improve location accuracy by putting new location precision requirements on call carriers each year. Last year, the requirement was that carriers provide location data within 50 meters, 40 percent of the time. In 2018, the requirement is 50 meters, 50 percent of the time. 
• Precise location data alone isn't next generation 911. Another integral component is the ability to handle new streams of data, such as delivering video and photos, and and deploying the technology needed to make these new capabilities that they make possible.

Read more about Apple's recent partnership with RapidSOS to deliver enhanced smartphone emergency location data for PSAPs through several industry-leading 9-1-1 system integrations. 

This Week From the Rave Team

Read some of the stories our writers were most excited to share with you this week. To access all of our stories, check out our blog. 

Add This Communication Tool To Your Business Technology Ecosystem

When building out a technology ecosystem, it’s important to identify the right technology to improve daily work life for employees. In many instances, improved employee communication can be a major force in improving not only a company’s work culture and procedures, but also play a role in employee safety. A mass notification system allows users to send unlimited messages, to unlimited recipients. An easy to use interface makes the tool even easier for IT teams to implement, as it can be accessed from any device.

                                                                     READ MORE 

How Panic Buttons Save Lives in Schools

Throughout the country, many school districts have installed panic button systems in response to an increase in school shootings. These panic buttons are accessible via smartphone app, not the physical wall- or desk-mounted panic button systems you remember from growing up. But how do “new technology” panic buttons save lives in schools? Learn how mobile panic button systems can improve communication to help better manage emergency incidents. 

READ MORE

Rave in the News

We're excited to be partnering with Santa Fe County's 911 to help local officials keep students and schools safe. The Santa Fe superintendent says the district is always exploring new technology to make schools safer and is excited to learn more about the program and what it can do for schools in the district. 

Major Gabriel Gonzales says the new system can buy emergency response more time and ensure critical incident information is being relayed from the scene to 911 dispatch. Emergency officials hope to get every schools in the county to use it. 

You can read the full story here. 

IT Leaders have evolved from running the help desk to leading a company’s digital transformation. In the past, IT workers were meant to lend support to the rest of the business. In the case of a technological hiccup or an employee needs training on a new technology, these fixers were called upon by the other departments. This supportive role has evolved along with the rapidly growing role of technology across industries. 

Now, the IT team must be leaders in the company, since technology influences the performance of most standard departments including sales, marketing, business strategy, or even roles in customer service.

The evolution of IT means that these employees are not just facilitating business goals, but driving them. Since the industrial reliance on technology is increasing in almost every field, CEOs are increasingly leaning on the IT department to be agile, highly-skilled employees. As the employees working in other departments become more tech-proficient, it’s just important for the IT team to understand how the different people in the company are integrating these tools into their role. This puts a lot of responsibility on the IT department and planning for proper deployment will be essential.

It’s also crucial for these employees to identify helpful technology in a rapidly changing landscape. In order to manage the integration of new and innovative technology, consider building an ecosystem view of business technology. This strategy will allow for companies to see all the benefits of business technologies, and make the transition from traditional IT roles to a more proactive role where finding and taking advantage of innovative opportunities is essential, more smooth.

What Is A Business Technology Ecosystem

The ecosystem approach to departmental planning is becoming more popular as technology becomes more prevalent. It allows for various teams across the company - whether that be sales, data services, customer services, to meet their various goals for improvement and expansion by leveraging technology. Within the company, these ecosystems can overlap. For example, a tool that will be valuable for one department, such as a mobile payment or calendar planning apps, will provide assistance across the company.

When it comes to IT, a business technology ecosystem can be complex. It consists of three major parts. The first is to bridge the gap between internal IT systems and external capability. This will provide integration capabilities that will benefit both workers and employees. This is crucial in an age where technology develops rapidly, and new tools are introduced. The more these tools can be made compatible, the greater benefit for the company as a whole. For example, when Uber needed a new safety feature, the app integrated a panic button into the interface. This allowed riders (and drivers) to directly contact 9-1-1 in the instance of an emergency. It’s a good example of integrating technology to upgrade user experience and to benefit employees, and it’s important for a business technology ecosystem to encourage this brand of innovation.

Another way an IT business technology ecosystem can work is to adopt outside technology and use it to improve internal operations. For example, a communication app such as Hipchat or Yammer that is created by an outside company can help daily operations at medium to large companies. It’s a type of technology that bridges the gap between employees and departments, and has universal use. By building out business technology capability, the IT team at a company can help employees achieve personal and company-wide goals.

In a world where technology is in a constant state of evolution, it’s also important for IT to develop a strategy for navigating these new products. While it’s important to be open to new technology and how it might be leveraged for a team, there can also be an experimental period. Depending on the company’s individual mission, certain technology might be more appropriate. It’s also essential that the product can be smoothly integrated and scaled up, so IT professionals also have to understand the technological architecture of the company to properly implement these new tools.

Building out a business tech ecosystem is a complex process, but it can be a valuable asset to  accompany. According to McKinsey & Company, there are six steps for assessing the potential ecosystem and implementing the technology. IT teams should: 

1. Work with CEOs to rethink how tech might change the business strategy
   
   
2. Develop the infrastructure to implement this technology
   
   
3. Reinvent customer management processes and structures to fit the new system
   
   
4. Be mindful of legal parameters and cyber security for the sake of customers and employees
   
   
5. Keep an open mind to new innovations
   
   
6. Invest in these new solutions.

How Can Communication Technology Play a Role? 

When building out a technology ecosystem, it’s important to identify the right technology to improve daily work life for employees. In many instances, improved employee communication can be a major force in improving not only a company’s work culture and procedures, but also play a role in employee safety. A mass notification system allows users to send unlimited messages, to unlimited recipients. An easy to use interface makes the tool even easier for IT teams to implement, as it can be accessed from any device.

A mass notification system can help keep employees up to date on important emergency information, such as during a severe weather emergency or an intruder on the company campus. However, it can also be used to proactively perform wellness checks for employees. There’s also an SMS opt-in feature, which will improve safety for visitors and boost the company’s reputation as a secure, tech-forward campus. This versatile tool is an essential for IT managers looking to build out their business technology ecosystem, and has great potential to improve company communication strategy, safety, and productivity.

It is vacation season, and for employees, this often means the chance to recharge with a break away from work or the exciting prospect of travel. However, for office and business continuity managers, protecting employees who are out of office poses a unique safety challenge. There is no single law requiring employers to keep track of employees who are out of office, but safety officials should have a protocol in place to communicate with employees, even when they are not on campus.

There are many reasons an employee might be out of office. It’s possible that employees can be away for business related travel, which makes communication with the rest of the company especially crucial. It’s also possible that an employee may need to be away from the office for a medical leave, or a family-related emergency. There’s also the potential for certain extreme weather situations to keep employees from the office. Last year, the devastating hurricane season kept many from going to work, while in New England, snowstorms regularly make travel to an office not an option. During all of these these scenarios, communication is critical.

Employers have options when it comes to protecting their workers, even when they are far from the office or facility in question. Technology has opened up new avenues for contacting employees, whether it is to check in on their safety or keep the entire team updated of office events. By leveraging innovative communication solutions, workplace safety can be improved, even for those who are out of office.

Employee Wellness Checks 

It’s important for employers to have a comprehensive safety plan that accounts for a variety of emergency situations. In cases of severe weather, employees may be unable to get to work. A proper communication system will allow the company to communicate with employees, even when they are not on campus.  For example, GE appliances managed to perform employee wellness checks during last year’s devastating hurricane season. According to Keith Carpenter, Senior Security Director at GE Appliances, the company was able to use their mass notification system as a way to communicate with employees, even when they’re not in the same locations.

When gathering employee information during the weather emergency,  the security team for GE realized that there wasn’t an easy way to track the employees who hadn’t responded to the check-in. A geo-polling feature helps solve this issue, a tool that provides real-time location data. This unique poll-based alerting system integrates with a mass-notification system that allows you to solicit information and location data from a select group of recipients through text, voice, and e-mail.  

No company should have to face such an emergency, but it’s best to be prepared. It’s important for employees to be looped in with mass notifications, even while out-of-office. In April, an active shooter entered the YouTube headquarters through a garage on the open campus and injured three employees. This is a scenario where a mass notification system is important, and would allow the office to communicate the location and nature of the emergency to all employees, even if they are away from the premises. By keeping the employees who are not in the office informed will prevent them from returning to the campus, improving overall safety for the office community.

Keep An Employee Database

It will be easier to manage the safety of off-campus employees if the company keeps an up to date database of contact information. A safety profile would allow employees to volunteer not only their personal contact information, but also any relevant medical information that would be helpful during an emergency situation. It would also employers to find alternative means to contact out of office employees. If the human resources department or other security personnel were having difficulties locating or contacting an employee who is away from office, they could use this emergency contact information if they had genuine safety concerns.

Consider All Communication Options

The ideal situation would allow for employees to be contacted at all times, no matter their location. However, extenuating circumstances can often prevent employees from being within range of their phones. During the 2017 hurricane season, GE relied on close-knit office communities to contact employees in Puerto Rico. The island was largely without power, but by reaching out to managers in the United States territory, the company was able to identify the status of their team members. This allowed the company to account for several employees, despite them being out of the range of contact.

This safety strategy can also be helpful for contacting employees who are away on business travel. Many companies operate out of multiple locations, and it’s important to manage communications between locations, no matter how far apart the two might be. If an emergency situation occurs and there are concerns about the employees’ status, the company could contact any affiliated offices abroad that might have contact with the worker. Even better, the company could connect their critical communications system, so updates were received by the company as a whole. 

In The News This Week

This week in industry news, Government Technology reports that the Sonoma County (CA) Board of Supervisors signed off on an internal audit of the county's response to the deadly October wildfires in order to better prepare them to respond to future disasters. Key Highlights:

• The board agreed to move forward with a restructuring of the emergency services division that begins with funding new jobs for people who will focus specifically on the development of a new community warning program
• The board acknowledged that the public's expectations for emergency alerts have grown significantly with technological advancements in recent years
• Sonoma County can serve a leadership role by developing a warning program that more closely matches public expectations for what information the government will provide in times of crisis

We reported on this story a few months ago when the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services published a report from an independent assessment of Sonoma County's disaster communication plan failure. You can read our breakdown of that report here.  

This Week From the Rave Team

Read some of the stories our writers were most excited to share with you this week. To access all of our stories, check out our blog. 

What do 15 of the Top 20 Safest College Campuses Have in Common?

ADT recently released their report of the 2018 safest college campuses in the country. The study narrowed down 6,284 colleges and universities to determine ADT’s safest campus in each state and overall top 25 safest campuses list. What do 15 of the top 20 safest college campuses have in common? Read our blog to find out!

                                                                     READ MORE 

Elementary School Safety Tips 

Last August, the National School Boards Association published an interview with Ken Trump - President of National School Safety and Security Services. When asked what elementary schools could do to increase the safety of children in their care, Trump initially focused on staff training to eliminate errors, but then progressed onto three main topics - school resource officers, school access controls and technology. We take a deep dive into this interview and what it means for school administrators. 

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Rave in the News

Will you be attending NENA 2018? Make sure to stop by booth #717 and talk with our team! 

In The News This Week

This week in industry news, Campus Safety shares how schools can improve campus security by implementing several easy-to-adopt school safety ideas. The Boward County League of Cities' School and Community Public Safety Task Force published over 100 school security recommendations, including several overarching principals that are particularly relevant to school officials across the country. 

Key Highlights:

• Regardless of your security solutions or policies, in the end, people must adhere to and be vigilant in enforcing policies and procedures 
• There are usually many different opportunities for prevention and intervention in school safety emergencies and thus the challenge is ensuring that layers of protection are woven in such a way that the failure of one point may be caught at another

There's no single approach to school safety that works every campus, but some of these ideas are so easily achievable that officials should at least consider them for their facilities. Campus Safety shares 12 security ideas you can implement immediately. 

You can access the full story here. 

This Week From the Rave Team

Read some of the stories our writers were most excited to share with you this week. To access all of our stories, check out our blog. 

Survey: Colleges Struggle to Engage and Keep Gen Z Students and Others Safe

A recent survey to colleges and universities across the country revealed a communication disconnect between higher education administrators and both Generation Z students and campus visitors. Results also showed schools were failing to reach the full ROI from their notification systems because of persistent underutilization. We take a deep dive into these results, as well as examine the role of gun violence and mental health on campus, in this survey breakdown blog.  

                                                                     READ MORE 

How the YouTube Shooting is Changing Open Office Safety Procedures

Switching to an open campus can offer employees a sense of freedom while at work. However, the open work space presents unique challenges that businesses should consider when crafting a safety plan. This blog breaks down common security challenges and provides strategies for improving open campus security while maintaining business operations and keeping employees happy. 

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Rave in the News

ADT recently published their list of the 25 safest college campuses across the country. ADT looked at data from the U.S. Department of Education's Campus Safety and Security Survey and the FBI Uniform Crime Report, as well as a multitude of factors, to determine their list for 2018. 

We are thrilled to say that 15 of the top 25 safest campuses in the country trust Rave technology to keep their communities safe. From anonymous texting with public safety officials to mass notifications during severe weather incidents, these schools are helping bring higher education safety into the 21st century. 

Read the full story to see which schools rounded out this year's top 25.  

On Tuesday, April 3^rd, an armed assailant entered YouTube headquarters and opened fire on employees. The attacker, a woman named Nasim Najafi Aghdam, shot and wounded three employees before shooting herself. Aghdam did not have a link to the three people she shot, and the random attack raised important questions about workplace safety and security. There are many ways corporate campuses can bolster their employee safety plan, but the shooting at YouTube presented created new concerns about vulnerabilities of the the open campus style favored by Silicon Valley tech companies.

The open office concept was created in Germany in 1950 by a team named Quickborner, who called this layout “the office landscape”. This type of office design was popularized with mobile technology, and has only been adopted in the United States during the last decade. In an open campus, offices are integrated into the surrounding suburban area, so residents and employees regularly mingle on the campus green or shopping in nearby retail. The open plan interior is thought to be more conducive to collaboration, since employees aren’t separated by cubicles. The space is instead characterized by workstations with no partitions and convertible collaboration spaces instead of conference rooms. Often, employees aren’t assigned to one space, and all work space is reserved on a first-come first serve basis, also known as “hotdesking”.

For employers, there are benefits to switching to an open campus, such as offering employees a sense of freedom while at work and coexisting peacefully with the surrounding residents. For the interior, the open space is thought to promote collaboration and decrease procrastination, both of which improve productivity. However, the open work space presents unique security challenges that business should consider when crafting a safety plan.

Open Campus Safety Challenges

The problem with protecting employees on an open campus is that the space was created with relaxation and comfort in mind. Unfortunately, this often means full accessibility, which present issues when it comes to managing security. Most businesses with an open campus do have security protocol that restricts access to the campus buildings, such as tap-in ID cards, but this doesn't account for the open outdoor or community spaces. In an interview with ABC News, former U.S. counterterrorism coordinator for the Department of Homeland Security John Cohen described how the open campus, while good for productivity, finds itself at odds with building security.  

"Most companies have embraced security protocols that restrict access to these open campuses,” Cohen said. "Once you're in the campus, they're designed to be free and open spaces because that's conducive to the type of environment they want to have in place to foster creativity and productivity. The problem is, from a security perspective, the more open, the more that an individual can move around and come into contact with other people, the easier it is for an attacker to operate in that environment.”

"The problem is, from a security perspective, the more open...the easier it is for an attacker to operate in that environment.”

For this reason, the sprawling campus buildings pose difficulties. In Silicon Valley, huge companies such as Facebook, Google, and Alphabet Inc’s recent expansion efforts have tried to make their campuses more inviting, so employees are open to mingle with neighbors in retail spaces and parks. According to the Wall Street Journal, this expansion strategy serves two purposes – it allows young tech employees access to stores and restaurants they enjoy, and it serves as a peace offering to the existing residents whose approval is needed to continue expansion. However, security remains a challenge, since the clusters of buildings cannot be fenced off in an effort to increase security.

The interior of these office buildings also present difficulties. Employees aren’t working in individual offices that can lock, and are instead working in huge shared rooms. There’s controlled access to the work space, but if an assailant bypasses that access point it leaves many employees vulnerable to attack. During the YouTube attack, Aghdam entered the building through the parking garage, which had two pedestrian doors. There was security on site, but the shooter managed to enter through a low-security point of the building. This reveals vulnerability for the office park, and forced the company to reevaluate response to critical incidents.

In a statement issued by Google, YouTube’s parent company, employees were assured that all precautions were being taken to improve safety. The statement read: “We are also revisiting this incident in detail and will be increasing the security we have at all our offices worldwide to make them more secure not only in the near-term, but long term.” It's not yet clear how the company will revise their business safety procedures, but there are unique challenges for the tech-world when it comes to improving workplace security. 

Balancing Security And Business Operations

The YouTube campus in San Bruno was designed to prioritize openness. It is made up of small buildings in close proximity, spread out across a suburban area. There are outdoor green spaces, and employees and locals are free to wander the area freely, and security guards are usually positioned at desks inside the building. Unfortunately, this creates many areas that aren’t secure for people working for the company, since employees are required to badge into the buildings, but the open space is accessible to all. The challenge is preserving this freedom to explore and use the campus space without fear, while also managing safety. Businesses don't want to overwhelm or instill fear in their community with highly visible security presence but they also need to make sure workers are protected.

The biggest challenge for managing workplace safety in Silicon Valley is balancing business needs with an appropriate security plan, two things that often run antithetical to each other in the tech world. In Fortune, former chief security officer at Uber Technologies Inc. and Facebook Joe Sullivan talked about how Silicon Valley’s environment poses an unprecedented security challenge. “Companies invest in security but purposefully keep physical security measures discreet because the vibe is casual and relaxed,” Sullivan told the magazine. “Leaders want to stay connected with their teams, generally choosing less visible security than you would see in traditional finance or media companies.”

Tourism also poses an issue for tech companies. Visitors are welcome to public areas, and regularly stop by the Facebook offices to take a picture with the giant thumbs-up sign or Android statues in front of Google. Companies have an obligation to protect employees from outside threats, but also to ensure that their grounds are a safe space for all visitors. Tourism is just one reason that businesses are beginning to take a more proactive approach to safety. "We're beginning to see those same business leaders come to understand that creating a safe environment for the workers and for visitors not only can enhance your brand but can make people more comfortable and more productive," Cohen told ABC News.

Strategies For Improving Open Campus Security

In recent months, gun violence has been at the forefront of the national conversation. Before the YouTube shooting, Silicon Valley was not part of this discussion, which often centers on public spaces like outdoor concerts, schools, or houses of worship. The perpetrator who entered the open campus and opened fire raised new concerns for tech companies, forcing them to rethink security practices. While not every one of the tech giants has this set up - Apple’s new headquarters Apple Park in Cupertino, California, for example, is circular campus that is closed off to the public. However, there are enough of these spaces to raise big worries for tech giants who want to maintain the freedom and open feel that a clustered campus offers, while also managing any threats to employees or the public at large. 

Luckily, there are several ways to improve safety and security for a company with an open campus, without dramatically changing the company culture. It’s important for the tech world to take a proactive approach to security for business continuity. The reality is that an active shooter attack or other major emergency on company grounds could damage the ability to bring in new employees and conduct business in the long term. The first step for businesses is to address security checkpoints. These should ensure that access to the buildings is controlled, and then interior building areas, especially those with open work formats, also have a security guard and require badge access.

The most difficult task for employee and visitor safety is hardening the public spaces. It’s important that workers don’t feel fearful, which means security personnel need to keep a low profile on campus. An anonymous 2-way tip helpline can be helpful, giving employee a discrete way to take safety into their own hands and report any suspicious activity in the area. Technology for emergency response is arguably less invasive then increasing presence of security personnel, though company's may want to reevaluate security checkpoint placement throughout their open campus as well. 

SMS Opt-In is a good option for tech companies with open areas. If tourists are going to be in the area for the afternoon, or an outside group is visiting the campus, they can opt-in for alerts for the duration of their visit. This will also help for brand reputation, as visitors will be able to see the company’s commitment to creating a safe environment.

Communication is important for managing workplace safety on an open campus. Effective communication can protect all employees, and is especially necessary when workers are spread out across many buildings and on the grounds. An emergency notification system can improve employee communication and awareness, and works in a variety of emergency situations including severe weather, active shooter threats, or medical emergencies. It also can help employers to conduct wellness checks, which are valuable for managing employee safety during an emergency. Many of these systems also have geo-poll or location capability, which can help identify an employee in need of help and send first response to the appropriate location. 

Education can be a tool as well, and if possible, employees should go through active shooter training or online classes. There is a delicate balance between preparedness and fearfulness, but it's necessary for workers to understand protocol should an emergency situation arise. There are simple procedures and drills that every company should have in place in case of an emergency, which will also cut down on disorganization or chaos and save time during emergency response. 

While it may not be at the forefront of every business plan, in the current environment, companies should take a proactive approach to employee safety. It’s important to factor security into business plans and office design, and it is possible to maintain the integrity of an open campus while prioritizing employee safety. It just takes education, innovation and leveraging technological tools, but this is what Silicon Valley is known for, after all. 

In The News This Week

This week in industry news, Campus Safety shared findings from a new poll which revealed that 90% of hospitals are not prepared for major disasters or mass tragedies and have experienced shortages in critical medicines. 

Key Highlights:

• "Hospitals and emergency medical services continue to suffer significant gaps in disaster preparedness, as well as national drug shortages for essential emergency medications," ACEP President Dr. Paul Kivela said in a news release. "These shortages can last for months, or longer, and constitute a significant risk to patients." 
• The ACEP also called on federal lawmakers to take necessary steps to improve hospital preparations for mass casualty events, including improved coordination among public health and safety services.

Kivela says the survey's findings point to the need for a stronger focus on the medical aspects of preparedness in the Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness and Advancing Innovation Act of 2017 (PAHPAI), which is being drafted in Washington, D.C.  

You can access the full story here. 

This Week From the Rave Team

Read some of the stories our writers were most excited to share with you this week. To access all of our stories, check out our blog.

What You Need to Know About Emerging Vendor Security Standards

Our writers recently sat down with Scott McGrath, Public Safety Solutions Architect at Rave, to discuss trends in information security, emerging industry standards for evaluating vendor security, and where the tech industry is headed next. Check out his interview to see why you should be pushing the tech community to come together and create industry standards to help streamline the process of vetting third-party data vendors. 

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Rave Panic Button and Non-Active Shooter Emergencies

Over the past year, Rave Panic Button has been activated over 5,000 times across the country. The reality is that most incidents are far more mundane than the active assailant incidents we hear about in the news. Rave Mobile Safety's CEO Todd Piett shares his thoughts on the gray area between non-active shooter emergencies and non-emergencies and how technology is playing a role in school safety. 

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Rave in the News

Rave Mobile Safety's CEO Todd Piett is featured this week in Safety + Health Magazine where he answers the questions, "What are the biggest technological innovations that have affected workplace safety?" 

Todd says technological innovations are essential in creating a significant impact in securing facilities and reducing the severity of emergencies and even shortening response times for first responders. According to Todd, it all comes down to an organization's ability to communicate. 

To read the full story, click here. 

I recently sat down with Scott McGrath, Public Safety Solutions Architect at Rave Mobile Safety, to discuss recent trends in information security, emerging industry standards for evaluating vendor security, and where the tech industry is headed next. Here’s what Scott had to say:

 Jackson: Let’s just jump right in - there are currently no minimum standards for data security and privacy in the United States is that correct?

Scott: For the majority of organizations, yes you’re correct. After the Equifax and other high profile data breach issues, every organization has had to re-evaluate their information security practices. It’s obviously necessary, but only recently has a few prospective standards bodies governing the right mix of industry standards started to emerge.

J: That sounds bad.

S: Well yes and no. In our case, “cloud security” standards are what our customers (and prospective customers) need to evaluate. There are definitely emerging standards, let’s put it that way, but these processes need to be streamlined and scaled – “one off” questionnaires, often consisting of hundreds of questions, take up enormous resources – and need to be addressed by very technical resources.

Just in the past month or two we are starting to see more and more traction on standardized documents used for vetting third-party vendors. The Cloud Security Alliance for example has a cloud vendor assessment, the CAIQ, which is becoming increasingly common. Then there is a new one that we have just started seeing for the first time called HECVAT – which stands for Higher Education Cloud Vendor Assessment Tool.  I have high hopes for this survey, as it built to streamline the process for both vendors and our higher education customers (the edscoop website has a helpful articles on this topic.)  I have talked to some customers who are just learning about it – but I have high hopes this is widely adopted.

Google has its own standard (VSAQ) for its own assessments, using the idea of an Open Source document process. And possibly the standard with the widest reach are the SIG (Standardized Information Gathering) and SIG Lite standards. SIG is a membership organization, and that may be a barrier to entry for some organizations.

Another issue is that we still see company’s customizing these documents just enough to make them inherently nonstandard across the whole industry.

J: And what's the cost of this?

S: Time and effort on both sides. The process feels bureaucratic, however well prepared our platforms are to protect data and user privacy. The lack of industry standards has definitely created winners and losers.

J: Can you explain? Are you saying organizations requesting this information are the winners?

S: Not exactly - organizations don’t realize this process actually places a huge unnecessary burden on both vendors and customer infosec specialists as well. It would be much easier for them to be able to shop for vendors and know right away a particular company has met industry standards on data security because that company has already gone through a standardized vetting process. Think of it as having a certificate that says “Congratulations, you passed!” hanging on your wall and organizations looking to purchase your platform can save time vetting you because they can see you’ve already passed a standardized clearance process. That assurance might be provided by a standard like the HEVCAT process, or by a more formal certification.

It’s our responsibility as the vendor to provide this information, and, in fact, we actively want to highlight our enhanced security capabilities because we take operational information security and privacy protection very seriously. So for us, this is a chance to show organizations our high level of commitment to security and privacy. Vendors aren’t hoping the vetting process goes away because it’s great to see organizations as concerned with data security as we’ve been for decades - we just want the process to be more efficient.

J: What do you think is motivating organizations to be more stringent on vetting third-party vendors? Are they afraid a vendor will take their data and sell it off or that a vendor will experience a data breach because of security insufficiency?

S: I think it’s a little bit of both. The motivation is partly because an organization doesn’t want to be caught off guard if something happens. An organization wants to be able to say that they had fully vetted a vendor who claimed they could enforce certain levels of security standards. So this idea of proper due diligence is definitely playing a role.

What’s really interesting though is security information in a general sense is not something a company  just has or doesn’t have - it’s something a company has spent an exhaustive amount of time and resources to build a complex process around. And this isn’t something vendors just started working on last year. Companies build their entire database and platform around concerns of data protection and so this isn’t new for those of us who work in this industry. What is new, however, is how we go about communicating our enhanced information security capabilities to those who ask.  

J: Looking towards the future, how are emerging standards going to affect data vendors? Does this create a burden on them, especially smaller ones, who have to be able to comply with emerging industry regulations?

S: It will definitely encourage vendors to be more rigorous of their own information security approach. For example, here at Rave we just initiated a formal Security Council that’s cross functional across many different departments in the organization. Its purpose is to make sure that information security issues don’t fall through the cracks if they surface within a specific sub-discipline of our overall operations. This will ultimately make our product better and our platform better. And I think this can be applied to vendors everywhere. Most vendors who work with data have extensive privacy and security measures in place to protect client and user information. There’s also all the activity to support the May 25, 2018 GDPR compliance directives in Europe. Our industry already has standards; we just need to have a better process to be able to show others that those standards exist.

J: We’re coming to an end on our time. Is there anything else you want to add?

S: Just that it’s time for the tech community to come together to create industry standards so the process of vetting third-party data vendors can be more streamlined – to be collaborative with our customers and prospects to streamline documentation needs.  Not only will this process provide significant relief to vendors in the current system – I’ve heard from many of my peers that the burden of response has increased an order of magnitude over the last few years, and I realize that my perspective is vendor-centric of course, and [laughing] might sound a little whiney even. But a standard annual platform assessment will also greatly benefit the organizations that are out shopping for new vendor platforms and vetting their current portfolio of products and vendors. It’ll save everyone more time, it’ll ensure the right questions are asked and answered, and it will provide the assurance to each organization that their data remains secure and private.

Scott McGrath is Public Safety Solutions Architect at Rave Mobile Safety. Scott has been with Rave for over 10 years, and has worked with hundreds of customers with a focus on best practices and technical solutions.

In The News This Week

This week in industry news, Wired investigates the unlikely, and potentially problematic,  partnership between Amazon's new facial recognition technology and law enforcement agencies. What laws or regulations govern police use of the facial recognition technology and who is likely to be impacted most? 

Key Highlights:

• Numerous nonprofits wrote to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to ask the he stop selling the technology to police over fears the system will violate rights and target communities of color. 
• State and federal laws generally leave police departments free to do things like search video or images collected from public cameras. Cities and local departments can set their own policies and guidelines, but even some early adopters of the technology haven't done so.
• Orlando's chief of police, John Mina, said that the system could improve public safety and "offer operational efficiency opportunities." However, the system hasn't yet been used in investigations, or on imagery of members of the public. 

"This is a perfect example of technology outpacing the law," says Jennifer Lynch, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "There are no rules." 

You can access the full story here. 

This Week From the Rave Team

Read some of the stories our writers were most excited to share with you this week. To access all of our stories, check out our blog.

7 Internal Communication Messages to Send via Mass Notification

HR and marketing communications experts agree that one of their biggest frustrations is getting internal communication messages read, especially if they require a timely response. Tapping into the communication capabilities of your internal communication system can allow employers to leverage employee engagement data and avoid alert fatigue. To help you get started with this, here are 7 internal communication messages to send to your employees via mass notification.

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How Seminole County, FL Protects 66,000 Students with Rave Panic Button and Mutualink

Last October we hosted a webinar featuring Captain Richard Francis, the School Safety and Security Director at the Seminole County Sheriff's Office. In this webinar breakdown blog, we highlight Captain Francis' thoughts on how Rave Panic Button has simplified the notification process for key stakeholders during an emergency and best practices for implementing the platform in your school system. 

READ MORE

Rave in the News

In April, an Ottawa County man shot two people in another county, killing one, before returning to his home where he held his wife hostage and threatened to kill her next. The situation posed a threat to not only the wife and those nearby, but also to the officers responding to the call.

Luckily, the man's wife was detailing key information from inside the home to local dispatchers, including information on her husband and the weapons he had. The wife spent 45 minutes texting Ottawa County dispatchers without her husband being aware of the exchange, giving law enforcement a huge tactical advantage when they arrived at the scene.

Ottawa County Central Dispatch Executive Director Tim Smith said he thinks the ability to communicate with the woman saved the lives of two officers. 

To read the full story, click here. 

Ask any HR or marketing communications expert about one of their biggest frustrations and at the top of their list will most likely be getting internal communication messages read, especially if they require a timely response. Employees are too busy to read emails and get too many of them, might not be in the office to read the newest company poster in the kitchen, and will likely ignore important company-wide notifications that don’t have a specific action for them to take.

As a result, many companies are now turning to “digital enterprise media channels” to ensure that all employees receive and respond as needed to critical messages. This focus on digital is part of a bigger transformation. According to the CMSWire, many businesses are moving toward digital maturity by taking several actions including “…developing omnichannel strategies to create seamless experiences across all platforms.”

This is where a mass notification system can be used for more than just emergencies. A mass notification system sends multi-modal messages via text, email, voice, IPAWS-OPEN, WebEOC, digital signage and more, within a few clicks. It also has the ability to collect and validate data from other systems, providing human resources with information they might not have already such as an updated employee mobile number.

Here are 7 Internal Communication Messages to Send Through Your Mass Notification System

1. Annual Compliance Trainings: Employees might start to tune out routine compliance or ethics training messages, but by targeting multiple communication channels, they’ll most likely see the message and get their recertification done.
2. Company Meeting Announcement: If you have an upcoming company meeting, sending out the details through an email and as a post on an internal company portal would help in getting employees to notice the announcement.
3. Leadership Changes: Announcing promotions or departures of key company leaders through as many channels as possible helps to avoid confusion amongst employees, after the news becomes public.
4. Office Moves or Closures: Employees on the way to their office might not see an email about their office being temporarily closed because of a water pipe break, but they would be able to listen to a voice message with the announcement.
5. HR Enrollment Periods: Sending out messages about deadline-driven initiatives such as annual enrollment periods can be done easily and polls can be used to target employees that haven’t yet re-enrolled.
6. Employee Surveys: Asking an employee for 5-7 minutes of their time for company feedback might not be the first priority on their list, but by using multi-modal notifications, you can send follow-up emails to those who haven’t participated.
7. Holiday Reminders: If you have international offices or offices that celebrate certain holidays, you can easily target messages to wish your employees a nice holiday or to remind others of office closures.

Tap into Employee Engagement Data

In addition to sending out important internal communication messages, you can leverage engagement data to not only view real-time updates of message delivery success, but also understand which types of messages resonate with your employees. With detailed “by recipient” reports, administrators can view message content, any responses, success/ failure by delivery method and recipient contact, as well as method-specific information, such as busy calls or answering machines. The reporting dashboard shows overall system use to help strategically improve message effectiveness across your organization and track engagement around corporate initiatives.

Avoid Alert Fatigue

A common concern with using a mass notification system for both emergencies and non-emergencies is causing what's called alert fatigue, which is defined as "how busy workers...become desensitized to safety alerts, and as a result ignore or fail to respond appropriately to such warnings." Mass notification administrators have found a few solutions to prevent alert fatigue including:

1. Using pre-set templates to distinguish certain types of messages: One simple way to prevent alert fatigue is by using specific senders for certain messages, so that an employee can easily distinguish emergency and non-emergency messages. Setting up generic templates such as "Building Closure" also helps not only expedite the messaging process, but also provide consistency in the look and feel of the message.
2. Limiting the number of messaging modes by authorized users: Others have found limiting the number of messaging modes by authorized users has also helped. For example, giving health and safety managers the authority to send through all communication modes in the event of an emergency and only letting HR managers to send through voice message and email.

Leveraging your mass notification system for non-emergency internal communication messages is possible and can help you understand how employees best engage and respond to company-wide messages. 

In The News This Week

This week in industry news, EdScoop discusses how the University of San Francisco has implemented facial recognition technology in dorms to give students an extra layer of protection and top crime on campus before it happens. For the university's security officials, it's a constant challenge to sort out who belongs and who represents a potential threat to safety, especially in student dorms. 

"Our No. 1 crime prevention tip is to tell students to walk as a group. When the students get to this dorm... the first one swipes at the card reader and the all the rest file in behind them, " said Jason Rossi, the university's director of campus security systems. "Immediately, by having the students follow our No. 1 safety tip, we've lost our occupancy assurance."

Key Highlights:

• Students still swipe ID cards as they enter a dorm, but the facial recognition software scans the faces of every person who walks into the building in real time against USF's student ID photos hosted in the cloud. If the system detects a face it doesn't recognize, the dorm attendant receives a notification to assess the situation. 
• The USF system only stores a student's biometric data for the duration of the time that they live in a campus residence hall and campus security officials say the footage from the cameras is not actively being watched.
• The system also allows for instant alerts and video recordings at the scene of a card-swipe if someone uses an ID that has been reported lost or stolen. 

So far, the privacy concerns about such a system have been muted, officials at the university of said.

You can access the full story here. 

This Week From the Rave Team

Read some of the stories our writers were most excited to share with you this week. To access all of our stories, check out our blog.

How to Quickly Communicate Product Recalls to Distributors

The recent E. coli outbreak linked to romaine lettuce is another reminder of how suppliers can best communicate product recalls with distributors. While not all product recalls are the same, the urgency of removing unsafe or under-quality products from store shelves is a common theme and is not always easy. When considering a communication tool for critical events such as product recalls, there are at least five features that should be included - we break them down and offer insight into building an all-inclusive business communication strategy. 

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Abandon Paper Registries, Not Vulnerable Populations

The objectives of a Vulnerable Needs Registry are to make sure the right resources are in the right place to help the right people at the right time. Yet many registries are still maintained on paper - making them difficult to keep up-to-date and potentially delaying the provision of help to those who need it most. We offer 7 best practices to help you save time and money when moving your vulnerable needs registry online.

READ MORE

Rave in the News

7-year-old Joshua King of Hancock County, Indiana is being praised for his brave and heroic work for calling 911 when his grandmother, Kristeen Walker, passed out in her garage earlier this month. Hancock County 911 Telecommunicator Greg Duda who answered the emergency call said he was unable to get an address from Joshua, but was quickly able to pull up information about who lived in Walker's house and where it was located from her Smart911 Safety Profile. 

"I saw the information and I asked I was speaking to Josh," Duda said. "He replied, 'no, I go by Joshua,' and I knew we had the right information." Officers were immediately dispatched to the scene where they found Walker unconscious but breathing. 

After the incident, Walker said she has had discussions with Joshua in the past about calling 911 if something ever happened to her. She creates both him and Smart911 for the quick response and for possibly saving her life. 

To read the full story, click here. 

The recent E. coli outbreak linked to romaine lettuce is another reminder of how suppliers can best communicate product recalls with distributors. According to the FDA, about 126 food recalls occur on average each year. The FDA also states that recall notifications should be marked as urgent, include detailed instructions including the extension of the recall (whether it affects consumers or wholesellers), and should include a return response card/form. The return response is also required in most cases.

While not all product recalls are the same, the urgency of removing unsafe or under-quality products from store shelves is a common theme and is not always easy. Implementing certain initiatives become critical to prevent the escalation of any serious issues.

Urgently Communicating Next Steps

Sending the word out to distributors or retailers about a product recall can be easily accomplished with a mass notification system. A mass notification system is a single communications platform that allows you to send out notifications instantly to a select audience through multiple communication modes.

For example, if Widget Foods was affected by the romaine lettuce E. coli outbreak, they could easily notify their store managers by sending out an alert about the recall through text message and email. The alert can include a link to additional information or any documentation needed as part of next steps. The alert could also go to the Widget Foods’ internal employee portal through the RSS feed.

Easily Collecting Responses

While it’s easy to send out an email communicating the recall, the more difficult part of the process is making sure that the message was received and that proper next steps are being taken. One effective way of collecting responses is to send a feedback poll to the same list of affected facilities. A poll-based alerting feature within a mass notification allows you to solicit information and even location data from a select group of recipients through SMS text, voice, and email.

Going back to the Widget Foods example, they could send out a poll to their stores to find out how many have followed through with next steps. The poll allows them to collect consistent responses so that they can determine if further action is needed to reach unresponsive stores.

Maintaining Good Faith with Consumers

The most important aspect of a product is maintaining good faith with consumers. A multitude of online resources exist to inform consumers about product recalls, but one way to leverage a mass notification system is by using an SMS opt-in feature. By texting a keyword to a short code, consumers would be able to sign up for alerts specific to the products they purchase, instead of digging through lists of various items on a webpage. 

You can use a keyword for multiple brands and can have multiple keywords. With optional automatic expiration, the subscription can be set to automatically expire on a specific date or after a specific duration.

What to Look for in a Mass Notification System to Communicate Product Recalls

When considering a communication tool for critical events such as product recalls, there are at least five features that should be included:

1. Unlimited list segmentation – Lists can be segmented by region, store/distribution facility, or contact role
2. Multi-modal message delivery – Notifications can be sent by a number of methods including voice, text message, email, social media, and RSS
   
   
3. Simple Interface – It shouldn’t take more than two steps to send notifications to all communication channels simultaneously
   
   
4. Two-way communications – Written/verbal responses should be possible to confirm receipt of messages
   
   
5. Robust reporting – Reports should include documents such as detailed event logs and deliverability performance by mode for each notification

Whether you currently use a mass notification system or alternative to communicate product recalls, find out how to evaluate your current system and ensure that it meets the needs for critical alerts.

In The News This Week

This week in industry news, ECN shares how researchers at the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) are aiming to make virtual reality simulations more of a reality for first responders, enabling them to learn and practice how to best operate and communicate in emergencies. The goal of this research is to spur industry developers to come up with user interfaces - visual indicators, sounds, voice commands - that are better, cheaper, proven effective and brought to market faster than otherwise would be possible.

Key Highlights:

• Possible technologies could allow for interfaces to be embedded in firefighters' masks or through smart glasses worn by medical technicians. A visual display might show the temperature in the room or audio might warn that oxygen is low in a backpack tank.
• Testing interfaces in real emergencies could expose first responders to high risk. Virtual reality offers a safer venue and can help ensure that innovations have a positive impact.
• So far, the software programs feature firefighting scenarios in a hotel, a mountain home, and an office environment. Users can choose their locations within the scenario and operate a controller to simulate a fire hose.

Developing any new product for first responders requires complex and resource-intensive testing. The goal is to develop technology that better informs and protects first responders in action.

You can access the full story here. 

This Week From the Rave Team

Read some of the stories our writers were most excited to share with you this week. To access all of our stories, check out our blog.

ASIS 2018 Thoughts and Expectations

On May 16-18th, more than 25,000 security and law enforcement professionals from the private and public sector will gather in New York for the 2018 ASIS conference. The event is an opportunity to network with leaders in the field, and to learn about the top issues facing security professionals today, including anti-terrorism tactics and other critical problems facing urban areas. Check out what critical concerns in the safety and security fields we anticipate having conversations about at the show. 

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National Police Week Honors Fallen or Injured Law Enforcement

In May, law enforcement officers from across the country will travel to Washington D.C. to participate in a series of events and ceremonies for National Police Week. The week coincides with Peace Officers Memorial day, which falls on May 15th, and both of which are meant to honor the law enforcement officers who lost their lives or were severely injured while serving their communities.

READ MORE

Rave in the News

The University of South Carolina, a current Rave Guardian user, ranks among the safest college campuses in America, according to a recent study by an affiliate of ADT security company. This ranking is a testament to the innovative and strategic work of the university's public safety professionals. 

The university is currently working toward the mandatory training for nearly 10,000 of their administrators, faculty and staff. They are also continuing to evaluate building-security plans down to the individual room level to provide their community with even more information in the event of an emergency situation. 

Faculty, staff, and students are supporting public safety on campus by reporting suspicious activity by adhering to the "See Something, Say Something" campaign launched across USC's campus. Concerned community members are encouraged to report suspicious behavior by calling public safety directly or using the Rave Guardian safety app. 

To learn more about the incredible work coming out of USC's public safety department, read the full story here.

On May 16-18th, more than 25,000 security and law enforcement professionals from the private and public sector will gather in New York for the 2018 ASIS conference. The event is an opportunity to network with leaders in the field, and to learn about the top issues facing security professionals today. These include anti-terrorism tactics and other critical problems facing urban areas. ASIS also brings together a variety of security solutions providers, so attendees have the opportunity to learn about innovative, technology based safety strategies.

This year, the event begins with keynote speaker Scott Morrison, head of global crisis management and command centers for JPMorgan & Chase. Conference sessions will tackle topics ranging from drone technology, office and workplace security, protecting against vehicle attacks and more. The ASIS New York City Chapter will honor Timothy Cardinal Dolan, the Archbishop of New York as it’s annual Person of the Year. Dolan will be recognized for his contribution to safety in New York.

The Rave Mobile Safety team will be at Booth 226 and is excited to bring further information to attendees about our platform of solutions. The conference is an opportunity to meet law enforcement and security professionals and learn about the issues they face today. It’s a chance to help these professionals find new technology solutions for the myriad contemporary challenges facing public safety teams. 

There are three major thoughts that Rave Mobile Safety hopes to keep in mind heading into the 2018 ASIS Conference. These are the critical concerns in the safety and security fields that we anticipate having conversations about.

1. Active Shooter Risks 

The tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High school in Parkland, Florida put the issue of active shooter risks and school security into the national spotlight. When an assailant broke into the offices at YouTube and opened fire in early April, it opened up the conversation around active shooter precautions to include corporate workplaces and other private buildings. This issue is one of the pressing security threats of contemporary society, and it’s definitely on the forefront of law enforcement and other public safety officials emergency planning. It’s critical that schools, universities, corporate campuses, and other organizations have a safety plan that mitigates the risk of an active shooter emergency. 

There are many ways to address these risks, and communities should have a specific plan in place. In recent years, new solutions have been invented or popularized to both help prevent active shooter scenarios and mitigate potential risks. Investment in door stops, increased security patrol for the school campus or workplace, bleeding control kits, and under the desk or keychain panic buttons for faculty and employees.

As for Rave, we look forward to discussing how our platform of solutions might be valuable to security and safety planners. The Rave panic button app and a mass notifications system are both tools that have the capability to stop an active shooting or minimize injuries. The panic button is particularly relevant to the issue of active shooters, as it has the ability to inform enforcement teams of the nature of the emergency and the location of the caller. This can cut down response time, which is crucial in an active shooter emergency.

2. How to Contact Employees During Severe Weather & Other Business Disruptions 

Last year, severe weather posted significant challenges to business operations. The 2017 Hurricane season was particularly severe, and posed safety challenges on the state level as well as for private businesses and organizations. The North East was hit with several large snowstorms last winter, which also posed a communication challenge. In order to ensure employee safety during a weather emergency, businesses are beginning to focus on proactive emergency plans instead of just reactive solutions. Communication is key during a severe weather emergency, and businesses should be able connect with staff and employees, even if they are well-dispersed.

Staff and employee wellness checks can ensure that businesses are looking out for all staff and employees. During Hurricanes Irma and Harvey, GE used Rave Alert to automate communications and wellness checks. The company’s use of the tool provided lessons for crisis communications in the future. 

3. IT & Phishing Scams

These scams are difficult to prevent, especially for businesses where employees receive a high volume of emails each day. Sometimes, an employee will accidentally click on an IT or phishing scam if the information looks misleading or it appears to be from a colleague. It’s important for businesses not to lose personal data to nefarious sources because of an e-mail scam. Mass notification technology can help warn employee populations about potential IT/Phishing scams. By keeping the whole team informed, employees can mitigate the amount of data loss, if not prevent the incident entirely.

When it comes to addressing the biggest security issues and threats facing communities today, it’s important to have a comprehensive safety plan. Law enforcement and security professionals often seek a holistic approach to public safety plans, and by doing so are proactive in emergency planning. Rave’s platform of solutions integrates well with other security practices and tools, and it can have a key role in further bolstering safety.

Let’s discuss the importance of a comprehensive safety plan and innovative security solutions at ASIS 2018. Stop by our booth, meet with our team, and learn more about how how our products can address company safety and employee critical communications.

The 9th annual Rave Summit kicked off in the mile-high city of Denver, CO from April 16th to 18th. Here's what you might have missed at this unique user summit, straight from our attendees.

Several people from all over the country and Canada descended into Denver and were greeted by Todd Piett, CEO of Rave Mobile Safety.

A special message from CEO @toddpiett to all incoming #ravesummit attendees pic.twitter.com/6eX4GpJ8Zl

— Rave Mobile Safety (@RaveMSafety) April 15, 2018

There was a buzz of excitement as attendees old and new settled in and checked out the event schedule.

My first Rave Conference. Hoping to learn something new. #LoveMyJob #RaveSummit

— Regina Payne (@payne2) April 15, 2018

Check out the @sched for Rave Summit @RaveMSafety #RaveSummit https://t.co/NmPkoKcPny

— Bob Bloom (@alexbob911) April 14, 2018

Excited for the start of the #RaveSummit here in #Denver. Thanks to @RaveMSafety @noahreiter @toddpiett for the invite to speak about #CorporateSecurity and #CrisisResponse.

— Don Aviv (@DonAviv) April 16, 2018

Proud to be a 6 year attendee and Charter50 member #ravesummit #ilovemyjob

— Leah Hornacek (@ljrebel52) April 17, 2018

Day One included standing-room only product trainings and ended with a beautiful Denver sunset.

Standing room only at our #ravesummit #ravealert product training! pic.twitter.com/VszcSoMvqk

— Rave Mobile Safety (@RaveMSafety) April 16, 2018

So stoked for the #RaveSummit that I’ve got two cups of coffee for the opening sessions. Hopefully there will be frequent breaks. pic.twitter.com/V5FWv8d0ld

— Mitchell Burmeister (@mitchburmeister) April 17, 2018

Denver Sunset #RaveSummit pic.twitter.com/sfHtHl6tkJ

— Kristi (@dirtroadaisymay) April 17, 2018

Day Two included a top-notch keynote speaker, a few secrets from our product team, and some important self-reflection.

“Know that your people are not trained to be disciplined.” @jc_glick delivers an awesome key note today at the #ravesummit @RaveMSafety pic.twitter.com/EzBqixzMcG

— Wanda Royster (@Wan_Gatt) April 17, 2018

@RaveMSafety - LTC JC Glick - #LifeIsChaos - don’t let repetition replace critical thinking. #RaveSummit pic.twitter.com/2DKK6aiFgL

— thedrew (@thedrew) April 17, 2018

My favorite slides are the one with unicorns #RaveSummit pic.twitter.com/4pSSLoHcRd

— Katharine Dahl (@Katharine_Dahl) April 17, 2018

#ravesummit #secrets pic.twitter.com/TeVMhTRPuT

— Rave Mobile Safety (@RaveMSafety) April 17, 2018

“We have to grow faster and better. No matter how big we get, we want to make sure we get your input, that we keep a pulse on your needs” - @toddpiett #ravesummit

— Rave Mobile Safety (@RaveMSafety) April 17, 2018

Oh, did we mention there was dancing and karoake on Day Two?

Check out these dance moves #ravesummit @Liveatjacks303 @pg6ix pic.twitter.com/1go5BaveMn

— Rave Mobile Safety (@RaveMSafety) April 18, 2018

You got to be startin' somethin! And that somethin better be your Smart911 profile! #ravefave #RaveSummit @mitchburmeister #punny pic.twitter.com/WC0Tn7MtN2

— Cody Ashbaugh (@Cody_Ashbaugh) April 18, 2018

Whole new level. #RaveSummit #transcending pic.twitter.com/gcU54Ibq0H

— Mitchell Burmeister (@mitchburmeister) April 18, 2018

Day Three included additional presentations, a chance for attendees to provide feedback on products, and ended with some well-deserved awards.

#Colorado speaker of the House, Rep. Chrisanta Duran welcoming #ravesummit attendees and discussing Colorado's efforts to bolster #schoolsafety @RaveMSafety pic.twitter.com/2TF1k0IPjx

— Noah Reiter (@noahreiter) April 18, 2018

Great product feedback from our customers! Innovation at elevation indeed #RaveSummit pic.twitter.com/24FZLi9eO2

— Katharine Dahl (@Katharine_Dahl) April 18, 2018

I won the prize for best selfie! Thanks Rave! #RaveSummit #ILoveMyJob pic.twitter.com/bIGdVuDZL9

— Debbie Jo Cook Nantz (@debrajor39) April 18, 2018

And finally, we ended the Rave Summit as we began, thinking of how we can improve for the future.

@RaveMSafety The #ravesummit has been absolutely worth the time and travel to come to Denver to engage in Innovation at Elevation!

— thedrew (@thedrew) April 18, 2018

Last day! It’s been such an exciting week here at #RaveSummit. Can’t believe it’s almost over 😢 pic.twitter.com/LzsfjcRGIL

— Padikuor (@Padikay) April 18, 2018

And that’s a wrap! The rave team is debriefing #ravesummit and thinking about how to incorporate your feedback for next year. Thank you for another great summit! pic.twitter.com/Cyiq9QpsuR

— Rave Mobile Safety (@RaveMSafety) April 18, 2018

Don't forget to check out our awesome hashtag photos, #ravesummit, #summitselfie, and #ilovemyjob. Want to get updates about our next Rave Summit or where we're off to next?

Businesses committed to keeping their employees safe are being recommended to create a comprehensive facility safety profiles to better prepare first responders in the event of an emergency.

A number of businesses have implemented personal safety tools for enhancing employee safety. Some tools provide features that can help protect employees working remotely and travelling worldwide, and also in the office - where employees have the options of calling the business's on-premises security personnel or summoning 911 emergency responders with the tap of a button.

However, problems can arise when using any mobile service to call for help from a large office building because of the difficulty in pinpointing the exact location of the caller. Although some products provide a GPS tracking feature that can help determine the caller's “X” and “Y” coordinates, GPS is unable to locate what floor a caller is calling from in a multistory building (the “Z” coordinate).

A similar situation can occur if an employee uses the business's landline number to call 911. When 911 calls are made from private home landlines, 911 dispatchers are able to pinpoint the location of the caller by the address registered to the landline phone. In a multistory building or high-rise, thousands of employees in hundreds of offices over multiple floors could be sharing the same telephone system.

How to Overcome Location Problems with Corporate Safety Profiles

Currently, any business that uses a personal safety tool can offer employees the ability to create their own safety profile, and includes details about themselves that may be critical to first responders to know in the event of an emergency. Such details can include blood types, medical conditions, medications, allergies and mobility issues.

Personal Safety Profiles can only be accessed by 911 dispatchers and first responders when a 911 call is made from a phone number registered to the Personal Safety Profile. Most employees will naturally include their work and mobile numbers in their profiles, but these do not necessarily help 911 dispatchers pinpoint the location of an employee in a large office building for the reasons given above.

However, if businesses create Corporate Safety Profiles that include information such as access points, floor plans, and utility shut-off points - and employees link their individual Personal Safety Profiles to the Corporate Safety Profiles - when an emergency incident occurs the employee only need give the office number or department they are calling from, and 911 dispatchers can locate them immediately.

What Additional Data Should be Included in Corporate Safety Profiles

Corporate Safety Profiles should be as comprehensive as possible to better prepare first responders attending an incident. In addition to highlighting access points, floor plans and utility shut-off points, corporate safety profiles should include:

• The location of fire extinguishers and AEDs.
• The location and codes for alarms.
• How to remotely access CCTV footage.
• Electronic door and gate codes.
• Contact information for key holders.
• Contact information for administrators.
• Contact information for security personnel.

Mobile phone carriers are working with the FCC to find a way of better tracing the origin of 911 calls from mobile callers located within multistory buildings. Currently trials are taking place using Wi-Fi hotspots and Bluetooth technology, but a truly accurate solution could be many years away. While we wait for a solution to be developed, it is recommended businesses create Corporate Safety Profiles and have employees link them to their own Personal Safety Profiles.

In The News This Week

In recent industry news, a Juniper study commissioned by Intel estimates that smart cities have the potential to "give back" a remarkable 125 hours to every resident every year. Additionally, the study ranks the top 20 smart cities worldwide across multiple factors, including public safety, and reveals how these cities deliver positive outcomes for quality of life, safer environments, and more. 

Key Highlights from the Study:

• Improvements in public safety can deliver substantial time benefits for smart city citizens. For example, street lights can be transformed into connected digital infrastructure beacons, monitoring the pulse of city life, which enable a range of local departments to be safer, cleaner, and more efficient. They can also be used to prioritize emergency service vehicles through traffic light phasing and driver re-routing.
• High-ranking safety winners such as Singapore and New York City have worked to address violent crime by taking a data-driven approach. New York City has found predictive modeling to be a key asset for both law enforcement and fire services. 
• Machine learning enabled software can be used to predict crime spots on any given day.

Read the full report here to learn how you can begin transforming your community into a smart city. 

This Week From the Rave Team

Read some of the stories our writers were most excited to share with you this week. To access all of our stories, check out our blog.

3 Questions Fluor Asked Before Integrating WebEOC with a Mass Notification System

Gary Simon, Senior Emergency Response Team Leader for Fluor Federal Petroleum Operations (FFPO), presented a webinar on how his company's need to protect employees and ensure business continuity led him to integrate WebEOC with Rave's mass notification system. In this webinar breakdown blog, we highlight a few of Gary's key takeaways on how updating your incident management plan can dramatically increase your situational awareness.

  READ MORE

Four Questions to Ask Before Renewing Your Mass Notification Contract

When it comes to renewing your mass notification vendor contract, you should consider asking a few questions to make sure you’re getting the most out of your investment. We offer up four of the most important questions to consider before renewing your mass notification system contract. 

READ MORE

Rave in the News

Spring's arrival signals the start of many severe weather events, including powerful thunderstorms and tornadoes. These storms can prove especially challenging to citizens with hearing loss. K.K. Gross, who runs the clinical operations for Shea Hearing Center in Memphis and Nashville, TN says the these emergencies can make communication difficult for hearing-impaired residents. Gross says there are easy steps people with hearing loss can take in advance to mitigate an emergency's impact, including putting together an emergency preparedness kit and equipping your home with emergency-detecting assistive technology devices. 

For residents living in Nashville and various other counties throughout Tennessee, Gross recommends they take advantage of Smart911. With this free service, residents can create a safety profile and input their medical history, noting any hearing impairments, that would be important for first responders to know about during an emergency. Gross says that it's important to have people in your network who know about your disability, and that includes emergency personnel.

You can access the story here.

Gary Simon, Senior Emergency Response Team Leader for Fluor Federal Petroleum Operations (FFPO), presented a webinar on how his company's need to protect employees and ensure business continuity led him to integrate WebEOC with Rave's mass notification system. 

"We needed to figure out a way to integrate our mass notification system and employ accountability into WebEOC so we could integrate with one platform."

FFPO, located along the U.S. gulf coast, is under contract with the Department of Energy to manage the day to day operations of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The requirements mandated by this federal contract, along with frequent interruptions to daily operations because of severe weather events, forced Gary and his team to find a comprehensive incident management solution that would address all their emergency management needs.

Prior to this integration, daily operations were handwritten and recorded on paper logs. Gary's team was tasked with bringing FFPO's day-to-day operations into the 21st century and integrate their team's three main safety technology platforms - WebEOC, ESRI GIS, and a mass notification system - into one.

Watch clip 1 of 2 to learn more about what initially prompted FFPO to embark on a platform integration and how you might be facing similar emergency safety shortcomings

 

 

 

 

 

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Before integrating their technology platforms, FFPO's emergency management team asked the following three questions:

Because the answer to all three of these questions was yes, Gary and his team were given the green light to move forward with the project. Two of the main goals for the integration, having the ability to house all emergency management activities in one location and overall improvement in situational awareness, were both achieved. This consolidation of platforms allowed FFPO's emergency management team to understand immediately the impact severe weather has on work sites, employees, supply transportation routes, and post-recovery efforts. 

Watch clip 2 of 2 to see how this integration improved the emergency management team's situational awareness and ultimately provided better protection for FFPO employees

 

 

 

 

 

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On What This Integration Means To Fluor

For Gary, the most important part of his job is ensuring the safety of Fluor employees and maintaining daily business operations. On what this integration has meant to FFPO, Gary had the following to say,

"The integration of these three platforms has dramatically improved the team's situational awareness, allows for better control and overall accountability of mass notifications reaching employees, and consolidates the process where the end user can do everything from one interface as opposed to maneuvering in and out of different platforms."

To end the webinar, Gary wanted to leave viewers with this final thought:

"By integrating all off these processes together and by having Rave Mobile Safety on board with us, we were able to take our alert notification and reduce the steps it takes to send out mass notifications by about 67%.

We were able to create a searchable history that is now automatically loaded the minute you make an alert… so it’s easy to get to old alerts and look through the database. It also gave management access from anywhere… anywhere you have internet connection you have 24/7 situational awareness."

Want to learn more?

The full recording of the webinar is about 30 minutes long and includes additional insight into Fluor's WebEOC integration as well as an extensive Q&A session. Check it out here or let us know if you’re interested in attending more webinars.